Motor performance, intelligence, and executive functions in children with asd

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent impairments in communication and social interaction and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities. Evidence points to a significant increase in the number of cases worldwide. Motor impairments in people with ASD are evidenced in numerous studies, but the real cause of this impairment is still a source of discussion in the literature. The aim of this study was to evaluate and correlate motor, intellectual and executive function performance in children diagnosed with ASD. Eighteen children and adolescents with a medical diagnosis of ASD, aged between 9 and 13 years, were evaluated. For the evaluations, the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2) scales were used for motor evaluation, Wechsler Abbreviated Intelligence Scale - WASI, cognitive evaluation, Trail Test: Parts A and B aiming at cognitive flexibility and the Attention Test by Cancellation - TAC. The results indicate that 67% of the studied sample had severe motor difficulties in all studied skills and significant correlations between the intellectual level and executive functions (rho = 0.907; 0.713), suggesting that the greater the impairment of executive functions and capacity the greater the impairment of motor skills.